Ponce de leon biography channel

Spanish explorer and conquistador (–)

"Ponce de León" redirects here. For other uses, see Ponce de León (disambiguation).

Juan Ponce de León^[a] (c.&#; – July ) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first official European expedition to Puerto Rico in and Florida in He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, in Though little is known about his family, he was of noble birth and served in the Spanish military from a young age.

He first came to the Americas as a "gentleman volunteer" with Christopher Columbus's second expedition in

By the early s, Ponce de León was a top military official in the colonial government of Hispaniola, where he helped crush a rebellion of the native Taíno people.

He was authorized to explore the neighboring island of Puerto Rico in and to take office as the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown in While Ponce de León grew quite wealthy from his plantations